Yamaha SLG200S Silent Guitar - Natural Reviews

I've been wanting to get one of these for a few years and finally made the decision to do so. This Yamaha instrument is fantastic and a lot of fun too play. I lowered the action a bit and put .010 to .050 Earth-wood acoustic strings on mine and it plays like an electric and sounds fabulous through an acoustic amplifier. When I need to practice in the morning or evening without disturbing anyone around I just pop in the headphones a play away in my own little world. The reverb on this unit is great for headphone practice as well as the chorus. I also use this direct into my recording setup and with some basic EQ-ing I get it dialed in to taste for recording as well. It comes with a really nice gig bag and some earbuds. Thanks Matt Masek and Sweetwater Team for getting this too me quickly and flawlessly.

I've had the steel string version for about a year. This is an underpriced instrument. That in and of itself says quite a bit. The fact that it's highly portable, collapsible, light, and an amazing visual attention getter would be meaningless if it wasn't a high quality, high performance instrument... which it is.

Audience response has been positive and in many cases I'm told that it sounds better than high priced Taylors and other top end acoustic guitars.

Has the profile of a Les Paul with none of the weight. Feels like an electric guitar but sounds like an acoustic one. On board electronics are a bonus!

This guitar should sell for more, and when people ask me what I paid for it they seem surprised!

This is a great guitar with a unique way of creating its's sound via the SRT Powered Pickup System.

Paired up with the THR5A amp and it's settings, the amps' software settings, the guitars' own settings, and then run through a DAW and its' settings, it's amazing the sounds you can get out of the SLG200S.

It stays in tune, there is no feedback, the breaking down of the frame for portability, the included case, the fact you can play and listen through the included earphones and not disturb anyone late at night, or play it through an amp and have it sound as great as it does is well worth having this in your collection.

The guitar and the amp can both be battery powered adding to the portability aspect. The guitar and amp are both aesthetically pleasing.

I also purchased the power adapter and a guitar strap, neither of which are included.

I am very happy with my SLG200S.

I love this guitar for practice. It feels good and looks interesting. I can sit in the bed room and not disturb anyone in the house, or sit on the porch and play without the neighbors hearing me. I normally play without amplification, but when using headphones it sounds like a real guitar. This is THE guitar for travel, and it also records well. One added bonus, it tends NOT to feedback on stage. A side effect of not having a resonant body. If you play acoustic on stage and have trouble with feedback you may want to give this a try.

Mine is the steel string version and it holds tune very well. I can practice with it, put it away, pull it out a month later, and it is still in tune. This is a quality guitar.

This electronic marvel does it all! Great tone, voices, built in tuner and fingerboard action! Don't leave home without it!

Reading the reviews on this from multiple sources... I felt it would be good. Travelling a lot; the need is for something I can take on the road and enjoy quietly. The things that surprised me are the solid construction, the ease of attaching the "rib", the overall sound and the convenient case. It's a great little instrument. The only complaint is the buttons are not as solid as a McIntosh amp lol, But they work great. Love the thing. Also, to throw a bouquet; service is important and Sweetwater is unmatched... along with my sales guy Mickey, his patience and attention to detail makes the purchase an actual pleasant experience!

This time I waited a few days to write my review and it was time well-spent. I used this new guitar with 4 sets of headphones, 4 amps, and the included earbuds. It sounds great with all! The best sound came from the Line 6 Spider V 120 combo with the acoustic amp setting. Since only one effect can be used at a time on the silent guitar, I added the other with the amp. The guitars reverb is very good and with some chorus added by the amp, I was in sonic hog heaven. Tried it the other way with amp reverb and guitar chorus, and it was excellent as well. Plugging into a Roland Micro cube was the next best amp combo. The same combinations sounded great. The headphone are more dependent on the quality of the headphones' quality. The Bose and Sony headphones sounded the best, the included earbuds sounded good, but not spectacular. Good enough for late night practicing. My only 2 issues are not really issues but preferences. I need to put lighter strings on the guitar for one, entirely a preference. And my Line 6 G-10 wireless transmitter does not fit in all the way. But, an adapter fixes this issue. I love this guitar. I called it my skeleton guitar, but my friend suggested "Skeletor". I also joke that I get the rest of the guitar after I finish my payment program. If you want a great, quiet, practice guitar, that can also be used o stage without feedback, THIS IS IT!! As usual Bob Mondok took great care of me and got everything handled like the consummate professional he is. Sweetwater ROCKS!!!

Been playing this almost every night. I work a mid swing shift. So, there's lot's of times I need to unwind after work and this guitar works great . Quiet enough that I don't wake up the people in the other apartments, or my girlfriend if she's sleeping.

I was using an acoustic guitar for many years for live performance and every sound engineer struggled with feedback issues and had to cut EQ frequencies to the point of embarrassing stage tone. If that wasn't enough if you have ever had to travel on a plane with an acoustic, you know how much it sucks! Recently an engineer mentioned the Yamaha Silent Guitar of which I was unaware of and after the show I did some research on You Tube and was very excited, so I placed an order with Sweetwater and received the guitar within two days. I have to say this guitar is so cool looking that it turns heads at every venue I perform at and the sound is stellar! You have on board, studio quality reverb, chorus, tuner, bass and treble knobs and a blend knob that mixes the piezo pickup with modeled full body acoustic sound. This guitar is a dream come true. If incredibly lush, rich acoustic tone is what you desire, without the annoying feedback, than look no further because this dream machine will blow your mind! Oh yes, It is so small, light and portable NO PROBLEM on any airline in the over head, plus it has a head phone jack that puts this already "GEM" in a category all by itself. Hey, Lee Ritenour, Mike Stern and Alex Scolnik use it live, need I say more??? sweeten your experience with a sales engineer at Sweetwater and relax in knowing they are the best in their field...

I really like this guitar. Playing through headphones it sounds fantastic and the effects and mixed mics setting provide a lot of variety. Through an amp it sounds ok, I don"t think it sounds as good as other acoustic electrics and in this setting the options in the amp and the guitar makes it hard work to find the right tone.

The guitar seems well made, it is fairly portable, though I would be nervous to put it in the top compartment of a plane. The jack in the back is kind of awkward for some wireless plugs. The AA batteries will not last long, specially if you forget to turn off the guitar. I wish the a/c adapter were compatible with the common 9V pedal adapters.

Overall very happy with the playability and sound for the practice in silent mode.

I"m sorry to say that I didn"t buy this guitar from Sweetwater. They were out of stock just like almost everyone else. I have always been happy with my Sweetwater purchases due to the great selection and superb customer service. I did call them first. Having said that, I bought it from the only company that was in stock at the time and got their last one.

The guitar is certainly different from any guitar I have owned. The action is good and very playable right out of the box. Intonation is dead on. Overall fit and finish is above average like most Yamaha guitars. Built in tuner is okay but a little slow to respond. Knobs and switches feel cheap but work okay. I"m trying to use a soft touch so as not to break or damage them. Sound is good through an amp but tends to be a little bit heavy on the bass end. With bass at minimum and treble at maximum, it sounds great through headphones. The effects and SRT system allows a lot of flexibility with the sound. Really gets close to the sound of a good miked acoustic guitar. The line out is okay but sounds better through my mixer where I can use EQ. I"ve gigged with it several times with many positive responses. The looks alone get a lot of interesting comments. I will be using this more and more for gigs.
I love the ability to use auxiliary input to play backing tracks or jam with other music I might want. The combined output can also be played through the amp or PA system.
Best feature of all is the almost silent sound. With headphones, I can practice without driving my wife away. She can watch tv in the same room with no problem. I think this is a real marriage saver

I have had this guitar a few months and was waiting to send this review rather than just firing off first impressions.Firstly,let me say that my background is that of an acoustic guitarist;I don't always have a lot of patience-or luck, plugging in.Also,my main point of reference is a Godin Multiac,which has needed a lot of TLC from a good luthier, but sounds great plugged direct into an an acoustic guitar amp with no effects.I've seen a direct comparison of these two guitars on you tube so I might make similar references.
I was impressed with the guitar straight out of the box; going by this experience I'd only buy from Sweetwater from now on...no loose frets or factory seconds here.After a bit of messing around it was easy to figure out how to put it together/work the controls, so I dug out an old set of iPod headphones and dug in.The sounds you can get....plugged into headphones, you just know you have made a good choice; for me there are two strong choices, light reverb/no chorus and dialed the other end, light chorus, a little reverb. The long reverb just sounds odd and -for me- unusable. If you like your guitar to sound nocturnal and soothing, look no further. Even though I don't have neighbor issues I still find myself putting on headphones just because the sounds are that good.
Into an acoustic amp was less than satisfactory-for me.Others on this forum have had a lot of satisfactions I may need to get a better acoustic amp or just keep experimenting a lot more. I found that compared to the Godin,the sound was a bit cold and metallic-in a word,disappointing.Also,the string separation/blend was not as good and the built in effects sounded a bit cheesy-nowhere near as good as through the headphones.It's easy to see good players on you tube who have had plenty of success through an amp with the same guitar, which makes me wonder just how do I need to tweak this thing.
Ergonomics;I really like the neck profile and feels well as the flat fingerboard.On my Godin,the first string can fly off the fingerboard, making it sound like you don't practice enough.No such problems whereat all.The guitar was not set up quite how I like it but it was certainly good enough for me to figure out what I was dealing with-a short stay at the luthiers sorted that out.For a guitar that's touted as 'also a travel guitar'(even though it's not as small as airlines stipulate)I was a little disappointed that the knobs were not recessed.A couple of rough journeys could land you with all kinds of unwanted problems you hadn't bargained for with controls working themselves loose.A cowling or recessed knobs would have been nice.
Also,the detachable upper bout.....although I found the contouring-body side- to be well thought out,it seems that if you are playing with bare arms, the hard chamfering is not well thought out and can cut into your fore arm.This problem is diminished when you wear a jacket or sweater, but how long before you fray your clothes? Would it take Yamaha too much work to round out the edges that come in contact with the player's arm?I have taken to wrapping two suitcase handle covers where my forearm rests-looks cheesy on such an attractive instrument, but it works. I suspect the pick guard is great for Latin/pop/jazz type players who use a pick and rest their fingers on the guard,but what about finger style players who rest their wrist/forearm on the guitar's face? If this is you,I would advise playing a silent guitar before you buy-it really might not work well for you, which would be a shame.I would be very happy to see Yamaha offer an additional arm/wrist rest that can be snapped on, for those who would benefit.
Upper bout; don't pick this guitar up by the upper bout-stick to the neck! a few times I picked this guitar up and it fell away fro me because the screw had worked it's way loose without any way of knowing it had happened.Perhaps a snap lock once the upper bout has been screwed in?
After reading back what I've typed,I still give the silent guitar 4 1/2 stars; into headphones it's a pleasure to play, surprisingly comfortable and hard to put down. If my review(re.electronics) is right and the sound direct into an amplifier can be improved-as well as the 'ergonomic' issues,I'd be happy to pay several hundred $$$ more for an improved version-it really could be an ideal 'one stop shop' guitar for those who need to travel light and stick to just one guitar. If I was stuck in an apartment with all the issues that can bring(like, how many guitars can you keep/how can you keep everyone happy with the noise level)this could easily be my main guitar without a second thought.
As it stands, well done Yamaha;I'm keeping mine!

My wife talked me into to getting this and I'm glad she did. In hand it looks like a piece of art. Is fairly resonate, more then expected without being plugged in. Through the included headphones it sounds wonderful. I don't have an acoustic amp but ran it through my PA, and my Budda SD18. Wonderful sounding through both.

Why I knocked off 1/2 a star. Out of the box the action is high. Better have strong hands, And the strings they put on this thing are stiff, super stiff. Sanding off 1.5mm from the saddle and changing strings made this super playable.

This is not a toy. I will be using this to gig with.

Out of the box it needed a set up. Thats why I gave it 4 stars not 5. I worked on the nut with my nut files and the saddle is next, needs to come down a bit. The 1 11/16 nut and the 25 inch scale make it very easy to play. I put EXL115's on and it sounds fine. I leave it put together and carry it in a Les Paul size gig bag. One major plus is AA batteries, not a 9 volt. Looks to me like these things are just about indestructible. You shouldn't have to worry much about temperature and humidity. I play it thru a Yamaha THR5A at home but when i go direct to the PA the built in reverb is nice. As usual Sweetwater is great to work with.

After touring with a full-size acoustic guitar for so long, and having to do too many fly-dates with it, I had to either accept that at some point I was going to wind up with a case full of splinters, or find a better alternative. The silent guitar is that alternative. It plays and sounds great. Would I record with it over my good dreadnought? No, but live through a PA it sounds fantastic. The on-board effects and tuner are decent. Nothing fantastic, but do the job if needed. It loses a star, however, because the strap buttons (which also double as the top frame set-screws) tend to loosen when using a strap. I'll have to find a way to keep that from happening in the future. Otherwise, though, this is my new touring acoustic, and I will accept the small infractions while making my travel life way easier.

There are many very good features that make this a 4 Star guitar and a couple that keep it from getting 5. It's a fun guitar to use at home and I'll have a light-weight, portable backup guitar for gigs. It arrived well set up for typical acoustic guitar action. (I've adjusted it for a lower action by lowering the saddle and with lighter strings there is still consistent true sound at all frets.)

The electronic sound is very good with a variety of earphones including the furnished "Yamaha" ones, standard Apple ear buds, and high end Shure In-Ear monitors. I roll off the low end to my taste using the BASS control and I'm please overall with the sound. The built in tuner works well and is as accurate as most small external tuners. The built in effects are ok: REV 1 is a "slap back" echo that I wouldn't use, REV 2 is a long echo that is too long to be a subtle reverb. The Chorus is more typical of that type of effect. Most external effects would be more variable than these built-ins but these are ok for a self-contained package. All three are accessed with a single rotary control that could be improved with a clicks (détentes) between Rev 1 and Rev 2 and between REV2 and Chorus. Amplified it's sound is consistent with the earphone sound and very useable.

The upper (removable) bout makes sit down playing feel like a standard guitar under my strumming arm. For stand-up playing the same holds true but the neck-heavy weight distribution requires the neck to be held up with left hand or right forearm on the upper bout.

As portable and convenient as it is, it doesn't meet the carry-on restrictions for most (all?) airlines. So I'm highly skeptical of getting it past most airline gate agents. But I will enjoy playing it around home, taking on car trips and having the security and simplicity of a light weight backup for performance trips.

First of all, I love this guitar. The sound is about what you would expect from a high end guitar run through a Fishman Aura or a TC Bodyrez pedal. Far better than what most people are getting. The action feels great and their ar no problems with things like intonation or playability.

As much as I like it, it isn't perfect. The shape of the upper bout is contoured for somebody playing the guitar a certain way, and unfortunately that isn't the high neck angled up way that jazzy players like me hold the guitar.

There is a bit too much of a low frequency bump that has to be EQed out when you amplify the guitar. I don't like the settings of the built in reverb. The short reverb is too short and the long reverb is too long. Worse than that, when the long reverb kicks in on the dial, there is too much of it.

Still I love the guitar. I can take it in my Mini Cooper without folding the seat down. The amplified sound is stellar. It looks great. With headphones for practice, it is a marriage saver. It is easy to correct the EQ and add a. Better reverb. I like enough that I am checking out guitar techs to modify the removable upper bout. In spite of the flaws I highly recommend it.

First of all this is a great concept. I received this guitar and found it well packed and boxed for safe shipping. Sweetwater is really the best with
respect to their shipping prep. The finish on the wood is flawless. The electronics perform as they are designed to do. The tuners are very smooth and stable. The frets and fretboard finish are also exceptional. But here's where I encountered a problem. The nut is plastic but adequate. The saddle is plastic and mis-sized. The slot that is cut in the bridge is 1/8th inch but the saddle that came on the guitar is .112 thickness
which caused the saddle to slant and not sit square on the pickup. Also, the B string had a very noticeable buzz from where the saddle had a notch cut into it where the B string crossed. None of the other strings had a notch cut. I had a Tusq saddle in my extra parts bin that I swapped out for the mis-sized saddle, it's slightly shorter but it will suffice until I receive the Graph Tech Nut and Saddle ordered from Sweetwater. Once I swapped out the saddle the string but went away and the sound actually improved when hooking it up to my amp. It's an interesting guitar and with correcting the issues with the wrong saddle and new Graph Tech nut it will do what it's designed to do.

The Yamaha SLG200S is a very cool looking guitar. It's unique, artistic design is sure to evoke a lot of curiosity and wows at a gig or party with friends. And I'm even more impressed to see it's made of real mahogany and rosewood. And rosewood on the "sides" against a mahogany "top" ... never seen that done before, and it's very cool!
Playability? It shipped with action a little high for me. Like many guitars, this allows the user to dial in the action to suit their needs, and I did just that. I sanded the under side of the saddle and finished the setup with my favorite strings, Martin Lifespans. Now, with the lowered action, fast neck and short scale it allows quick and easy fingering of chords. But ... the instrument is a little neck-heavy, necessitating using a strap while playing sitting down. And, the body frame of the SLG200S is not as comfortable sitting down playing as is my Marting 000X1AE.
As for tone, well, it doesn't measure up to the tone of my Marting plugged in. For sure, this Yamaha has a nice and mellow tone, but it's unbalanced. Most bass notes come out louder than other notes produced on this instrument, no matter how hard I try to dial it down on the guitar and my amp. With my Martin, on the other hand, I can dial as much or as little bass as I want. Also, the Yamaha does what I call "spiking" (sound men might have a better word for it), or harshly distorting two adjoining notes into almost a single garble. This doesn't happen too much, between it does, it's noticeable. Again, my Marting doesn't do it, so I can't blame the amp. I think a good sound person could equalize out these flaws, but the best I can do is try and compensate with my fingerpicking attacks. (I imagine a jazz player with a flat pick would have an easier time of it.)
Bottom line: This guitar has a warm, mellow tone, and some things I play sound just fine. With other tunes, the above mentioned flaws surface. Therefore, I can see bringing this guitar to the stage for some songs, but not for exclusive use during a gig. And it's great for practicing late at night with the headphones, which I do a lot. I don't disturb anyone.
I like this guitar a lot, but it's not love as it is with my Martin.

I rather like this as a practice instrument. The electronics make it sound nice etc. I do have one continuing annoyance. The bridge was placed just a bit too far away from the nut. So it isn't something a normal setup solves. The bridge slot will have to be re-cut. Moral: Check the intonation carefully when you receive the instrument.

Kept the SLG200 for one day. Action, tone and feel is horrendous. Far from resembling anything acoustic. Will be going with Godin A6 Ultra. Would like to thank Sweetwater for their return policy.